Sanitary safety guard for poultry drinking fountains



April 13, 1943. c. HEDRICK 2,316,427

SANITARY SAFETY GUARD FOR POULTRY DRINKING FOUNTAINS Filed Aug. 30, 1940 5 x p4 1 \"w 1 INVENT OR.

AT T0 RN BY.

Patented Apr. 13, 1943 SANITARY SAFETY GUARD FOR POULTRY DRINKING FOUNTAIN S Clarence Elliott Hcdrick, Newton, Kans.

Application August 30, 1940, Serial No. 354,862

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a sanitary safety guard for poultry drinking fountains, and has for its principal object the provision of a rod structure to guard chicks from entering the water trough of a fountain bodily, but the chick being free to drink therefrom.

A further object of this invention is to construct a safety guard that is adjustable circumferentially of the drinking fountain without impairing the efficiency of the guard.

A still further object of this invention is to manufacture an efficient sanitary guard for chicks to be applied to poultry drinking fountains, preferably said guard being manufactured from standard welded wire mesh.

These and other objects will hereinafter be more fully explained, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a .part of this specification, and in which like characters will apply to like parts in the different views.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the guard.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the guard as applied to a poultry drinking fountain.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of the guard at its connecting ends.

Figs. 6 and 7 show vertical sections of modified forms for the guard, in which Fig. 6 illustrates the slant of the fingers having an intermediate abrupt bend, while Fig. 7 shows the terminal end of the finger positioned inward by an arcuate bend of the finger portion.

Fig. 8 is an elevation of a fragmentary portion of the guard wall, modified by subdividing the wire mesh by a centrally disposed rod.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of the guard engaging on the inside of the trough.

Fig. 10 is an elevation of Fig. 9, the trough sectionally shown.

This invention relates to a sanitary safety guard for poultry drinking fountains, in which the guard is constructed from standard make of welded wire mesh made of small rods functioning as a warp and woof with respect to a sheet of the wire mesh, or by the assembly of rods of a desired gauge, and being welded together by the manufacturer of the guard. However the said guard is composed of a plurality of vertically disposed portions of rods I secured in spaced relation to horizontally disposed rods 2. Being so assembled, the structure may be annular or formed otherwise, the annular form being preferred, and adapted to encircle a cylindrical poultry drinking fountain. The guard, being so positioned, the vertical wall thereof may engage internally or externally of the wall A of the watering trough of said fountain as shown in Figs. 9 and 10, and Fig. 3, respectively, or the said guard wall may seat on the rim B of said trough wall as shown by dotted lines 0 in Fig. 10. Furthermore, the said guard is adjustable vertically on the fountain, as shown by dotted lines D in Fig. 3, said dotted lines indicating the position of the guard moved upward a short distance and being frictionally retained by its engagement on the rim and a possible engagement of finger 3 on the wall of the tank E.

It will be seen that the fingers of the guard are upper extensions of the vertically disposed rods, and being bent inward toward the tank to engage therewith at their terminal ends, if so desired, as an enclosure between the vertical portion of guard and the tank, and the said fingers being bent abruptly where they leave the upper annular rod, and being straight, but not restricted to such form, as the said finger portions may be arcuate as at F in Fig. '7, or comprised of two bends G and H, respectively, as shown in Fig. 6. However, the inward bend of the fingers may vary with respect to extension, as tanks of the fountain may vary in diameter. Likewise the width of the watering trough may vary. In other words, a guard as manufactured, is flexible for required adjustment, and being secured to engagement around the fountain by interlapping the ends of the guard with respect to the same longitudinally as shown in Fig. 5, through the medium of a hook 4 formed on one end of each horizontal rod correspondingly, the hooks each having an acute bend to maintain the interlapped portions of the wall snugly together, as the said hooks engage on a vertically disposed rod selectively. The connecting movement will be in the direction of the arrows, and may be as illustrated by dotted lines 2' in said Fig. 5. It will be understood that said guard may be formed annularly with a lesser diameter than the outer extremity of the trough against which the guard will engage, in which case the hooks ratchetly engage the vertical rods while closing the guard to snug engagement with the drinking fountain.

The vertical rods being spaced apart provide a series of openings whereby chicks have access to the water in the trough, said openings being of an appropriate width to prevent chicks passing therethrough but the chicks being free to drink without interrupting adjacent chicks, and the guard being adjustable to be raised and lowered,

is means to accommodate for chicks varying in size with respect to an upward position of their heads to swallow, which is a matter of custom of the chicks while drinking.

As a modification, I may place a centrally disposed horizontal rod 2, as shown in Fig. 8, to subdivide the mesh vertically, whereby chicks varying in size will have access to the trough above and below said rod when the guard seats on the rim of the trough, and such other modifications may be employed as lie within the scope of the appended claim.

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Pat ent is:

In combination, a cylindrical vertically disposed Water container having an annular watering trough surrounding the base thereof, said watering trough having a flanged wall outwardly spaced from the wall of the cylindrical water container, and an annular upright wire mesh structure engaging snugly with the flange of the said outer wall of the trough, the lower edge of the wire mesh being in the same plane as the bottom'of said trough, and portions of said wire mesh at its upper extremity converging upwardly and engaging the wall of the cylindrical water container.

CLARENCE ELLIOTT HEDRICK. 

